Monday, December 21, 2009

I get so excited about Christmas each year, and this year was no exception. I was wrapping up my long “to do” list at the grocery story on Thursday. Our plans were to leave on Saturday for Tennessee to spend a few days with my family before heading back to spend Christmas at home with my inlaws. While at the grocery store, a lady asked me if we were getting ready for “the storm.”

“Storm? What storm?” I asked.

She went on to inform me that a huge snowstorm was heading our way, and they were predicting we would get 9-12 inches of snow.

My jaw hit the floor. I had not heard anything about this.

I am a southern girl. And I have been disappointed more than once by an intelligent-looking weatherman telling me we would be getting some snow. It doesn't take much snow to get me excited. 3 inches is perfectly awesome to me! I vividly remember the “Blizzard of 93” but never expected that it would be repeated anytime soon.

I called Bob at his office and he began looking into this weather forecast. They thought the storm would hit our area Friday evening and would continue through Saturday. At the last minute, we decided to leave Friday and try to beat the storm.

Hmm... We had been driving for about 45 minutes when it began to snow. Light, pretty, little snow.

The kids were sound asleep so I closed my eyes to get a little cat nap.

When I opened my eyes, I found myself in the middle of a stinkin' blizzard! The flakes were huge and it was coming down very hard. We were only 2 hours into our 7 hour trip and quickly decided it was time to get off the roads. With 2 little ones, we did not want to take the chance of getting stranded on the interstate in a blizzard.

And one thing about my husband: when it's time to work, he works very hard. But when it's time to play, he loves to play hard too.

So he called around and found an awesome hotel 5 miles away.

This is where we found shelter from the storm. It was a lovely, historic hotel that was beautifully decorated for Christmas.

They had over 80 Christmas trees and the kids had a great time thoroughly examining each one.

Eveley was intrigued by the puzzle table in the lobby.

And Caleb was intrigued by the bolster pillow in the room.

This was quite a neat Christmas treat.

The next morning, we found nearly 2 feet of snow on the ground. But, thankfully, we were able to slowly get on the interstate and drive to TN. We were very thankful that the Lord protected us and got us there safely. This was definitely a Christmas adventure we will not soon forget!

I spent the morning with Landon at school on Thursday. When I left that morning I had heard we were getting maybe a couple of inches. By the time I got home Travis had called and left a message saying we were getting a lot more and for me to start packing. We weren't planning on leaving for TN until Wen. but left Friday morning instead. That was a lot of laundary to wash and packing to do in half of a day.